Diagnosed Coeliac 2005 after Chronic Illness. Couldn't eat the commercially available GF Foods.Decided to make my own, I read cookbooks both GF and regular so now I devise my own from 'scratch recipes'

Thanks for posting this! (and the other threads in this GF Pizza section...you've been busy, I see!) The pizza looks great

Just curious....what function does the cider vinegar serve in the recipe? I've read it's an ingredient in several GF dough concoctions, but can't seem to find an answer as to what exactly it does for the dough.

Dough fermentation, in addition to generating alcohol and carbon dioxide, also produces small amounts of a fairly large number of organic acids. These include lactic, acetic, succinic, propionic, fumaric and pyruvic, butyric, isobutyric, valeric, isovaleric and capriotic acids. Among these, the most prevalent are acetic, propionic, butyric, isobutyric, valeric, isovaleric and capriotic. Acetic acid is the most prevalent by far. The production of acetic acid is much higher in breads made with a poolish or naturally leavened than with a straight dough. Calvel speculates that acetic acid acts as a carrier for bread crumb aroma, sensitizing the taster to the other constituents of the aroma. This effect seems to be directly linked to the amount of acetic acid in the dough

As maturation progresses and fermentation is prolonged, the dough becomes richer in organic acids, and this increase becomes evident as a lowering of its pH. The longer fermentation is allowed to continue, the richer in organic acids the medium becomes. This formation of acids is reflected in a time-dependent decrease of pH and an increase in titratable acidity in the fermenting medium. A number of factors such as aroma, and keeping quality are enhanced as a result of the development lower pH (more acidic) dough. Temperature of the dough is an important factor. Calvel demonstrates this in the graph shown here. (Graph 2)

While progressive pH change in naturally leavened dough is relatively rapid as can be seen, the change appears to occur more slowly in dough leavened with bakers yeast. The presence of salt in dough often masks acetic acid. When the dough is leavened with an unsalted preferment, the acetic acid or vinegar odor appears a little more rapidly, although it is still hardly perceptible.

The results of these evaluations of dough pH are influenced by leavening method, and are different from one another. The pH is ultimately related to the level of residual sugars present in the dough before baking. Thus, a discussion of pH must, by default, include discussions of residual sugars. These residual sugars are the remainder of those that fed dough fermentation. They fulfill important functions during the baking process. The level at which they are present plays an important role in the quality of the final loaf of bread. Generally, a below average pH coincides with a lack of residual sugars, which translates to a deficiency in oven-spring, i.e. loaf volume, crust coloration and crust thickness, aroma, crust taste, crumb flavor, and keeping quality.

When the dough is leavened with prefemented dough which undergoes an excess of maturation or fermentation, it is good practice to remedy the lack of residual sugar in advance by adding from 0.1% to 0.2% malt extract during mixing to reestablish the proper sugar balance.Excessive residual sugar may also occur, although this is more rare. If this phenomenon is caused by characteristics inherent in the flour it is a difficult occurrence to correct. If excessive residual sugars occur as a result of the manner in which the dough was handled, i.e. an abnormally short first fermentation, or a lack of proper dough maturation, it is more easily corrected.

The presence of an appropriate amount of residual sugars in the dough at the time of baking is extremely important. It insures an active oven spring, assists in dough development, and helps the loaves to reach a normal volume. Appropriate residual sugar levels contribute to optimal crust color, which in turn, according to Professor Calvel, contributes to the exterior appearance, the aroma and the flavor of bread.

Lactic acid, not mentioned by Calvel, but cited as a prevalent acid in white bread by Pyler also survives at some level in the finished bread. The accumulation of lactic acid in fermenting dough is attributable primarily to the presence of the genus Lactobacillus in both flour and compressed yeast. Of the two acids (lactic and acetic), acetic acid is normally found in smaller quantities. It is also weaker than lactic acid, with a lesser degree of ionization, and its effect upon the pH of the dough is correspondingly smaller.

In sourdough breads ("San Francisco Sourdough)", acetic acid represents about 50% of the total acids found, and was five to ten times that found in white (non-sourdough) breads. The pH of fermenting dough is more strongly affected by the presence of ammonium salts in yeast foods, especially if the ammonia is present as the salt of a strong acid such as hydrochloric or sulfuric acid. Yeast readily assimilates ammonia as a nitrogen source.

Thanks for posting this! (and the other threads in this GF Pizza section...you've been busy, I see!) The pizza looks great

Just curious....what function does the cider vinegar serve in the recipe? I've read it's an ingredient in several GF dough concoctions, but can't seem to find an answer as to what exactly it does for the dough.

cheers!Dave

« Last Edit: January 26, 2010, 01:30:36 PM by Irish Daveyboy »

Logged

Diagnosed Coeliac 2005 after Chronic Illness. Couldn't eat the commercially available GF Foods.Decided to make my own, I read cookbooks both GF and regular so now I devise my own from 'scratch recipes'

1. Would leaving the finished dough ball in the bowl a few hours at room temp allow for a fermentation of any kind? I would like to incorp a yeasty type of flavor for the finished product.2. What are your thoughts of spreading out the dough into an 9x9 pan and letting it rise at room temp for an hour or so for use in a sicilian style pie?

1. Would leaving the finished dough ball in the bowl a few hours at room temp allow for a fermentation of any kind? I would like to incorp a yeasty type of flavor for the finished product.2. What are your thoughts of spreading out the dough into an 9x9 pan and letting it rise at room temp for an hour or so for use in a sicilian style pie?

Best regards David.

To be quite honest, when I had the crust rolled out in the pan, I wanted Pizza 'NOW' seeing it had been so long enduring carboard like commercially made GF Pizza bases.

I didn't care about adding extra rising time (single rise, the application of heat was fine)

I have not tried for a double rise, 1st (chemical) yeast fermentation at ambient temp. Second when heat is applied (early stages of cooking).

If you are a Celiac, try the basic recipe first, then try playing around with it.

Best Regards,David

Logged

Diagnosed Coeliac 2005 after Chronic Illness. Couldn't eat the commercially available GF Foods.Decided to make my own, I read cookbooks both GF and regular so now I devise my own from 'scratch recipes'

Is there a difference b/n tapioca starch and tapioca flour? And if so, did you just use a combo? ThanKs!

Hi,Tapioca is in fact a starch but is misrepresented as a flour.

Here's an explanation about starch.

Flour is what you get when you take a seed and grind it upStarch is the carbohydrate component.These are long chains of sugars that humans can digest; cellulose on the other hand can only be digested by bacteria.There are two sugar chains (polymers)Amylopectin, and Amylose.

Amylose is the polymer that causes bread to go stale. When bread cools the polymer becomes solid or semi-solid. Bread should be completely cooled before cutting..Amylose gets really solid and forms crystals with water in the centre. this causes bread to feel dry, and crumbly and fall apart when eaten, it also explains how you can refresh bread in the microwave, Heating vaporises the encapsulated water into steam and makes it soft again.

Not all starches are equal, they vary in their content of stale –inducing Amylose .

Wheat starch has up to 31%, (depending on variety)

Among the GF starchesCorn has 28% Potato has 23%Tapioca has the least at 17%.

Potato Starch retains the most moisture after baking compared to Corn or Tapioca, you need less potato starch and water and reduce xanthan by half otherwise you’re left with a soggy mess.

Corn Starch is cheap and available, it stales quickest and has no flavour quality.

Tapioca Starch best, it has the lowest % Amylose, and highest clarity of flavour.

Tapioca comes from cassava root, the starch is extracted and dropped onto a hot plate creating pearls. (These pearls are used in a type of milk pudding) These are ground into a powder, since it’s not ground from a seed it’s a misnomer to call it a flour.

Best Regards,David

Logged

Diagnosed Coeliac 2005 after Chronic Illness. Couldn't eat the commercially available GF Foods.Decided to make my own, I read cookbooks both GF and regular so now I devise my own from 'scratch recipes'

Diagnosed Coeliac 2005 after Chronic Illness. Couldn't eat the commercially available GF Foods.Decided to make my own, I read cookbooks both GF and regular so now I devise my own from 'scratch recipes'

Thank you DaveyBoy! My wife and I tried this last weekend, and it turned out great! We're going to give it another go tonight.

One question - when we made this the first time, we had major issues with the dough sticking to the beaters. My wife was actually going to toss it out, thinking it wouldn't work, but I convinced her otherwise, thankfully. I'm just wondering if there's maybe something we did wrong the first time, since you note that if it's too stiff to add water, but with the amount of water we had to add to loosen it up we ended up with a very gooey dough instead of bread-like. We tried just scraping the dough off the beaters but it instantly stuck to the beaters when starting up again, so we had no choice but to keep adding the water. Rolling it out was interesting, to say the least.

I'm going to try using a stand mixer tonight to see if that makes a difference. If not, do you have any ideas?

In the end it doesn't really matter since the resulting crust was far and away the best gluten-free option either of us had ever tried.

Using the stand up mixer made it much easier to mix, and I didn't have to add extra water to keep it from sticking too much. It was still a bit gooey, but not anywhere near as gooey as the the first attempt.

Unfortunately though, I had to substitute potato starch for most of the tapioca starch (forgot to buy some), and I think that may have had an impact on the final crust. It was still tasty, but it was much denser than my first attempt.

Next time I'm going to make sure I have tapioca and I'll add slightly less liquid to the mixture in the hopes that I'll actually end up with something more dough-like. If I'm able to do that, I think I'm going to let it sit for a couple of hours to see if the dough will rise a bit as well.

Decided to try this recipe with a Detroit Style deep-dish yesterday for lunch. Had everything on hand except the brown rice flour, subbed white rice flour. The dough was sticky for about 30 seconds (pic 1) and then started to set up a little and was easy to press into the lightly-oiled pan. Gave it five minutes at 475 to get it to rise and firm up (pic 2), then dressed with grated white cheddar on the edges and a mix of cheddar and sharp provolone on top, ladled on some sauce, put down a layer of basil leaves, then a little more cheese on top (pic 3). Back in the oven for 10 more minutes, then three minutes under the broiler to finish (pic 4).

The finished product was pretty good, saved by the toasted cheese edge, but the basil on the sauce made cutting difficult (pic 5). The crust was sort of like polenta, dense and a little chewy, and it cooked well in the pan (pic 6). I told my son that it was an “emergency crust” experiment, something that could be made and cooked immediately, and he ate two pieces but wasn’t impressed compared to the regular DS. If I couldn’t consume gluten, I would happily use this recipe to get something close to a DS pie.

For the next time, I won’t par-bake because the crust shrinks a little while dressing and sauce and cheese gets in along the sides. Instead, I’m going to dress with cheese and minimal toppings, bake to completion, then top with warm sauce after cutting.

Tried the recipe in a Detroit Style again last night, using baking powder instead of yeast to see if that would help it keep a little more air in the crust. Unfortunately, it didn't, still fell after cooking and ended up dense. Didn't do a par-bake this time, pressed the dough into the pan, put the sharp cheddar on the edge, oregano and basil across the middle, then covered with the rest of the cheese and baked at 475F for about 12 minutes. Applied the sauce after cutting. It was actually very good and again, if I absolutely couldn't eat gluten I would be really happy with this dough as a base for the DS style.

I forgot to take pictures of the fully dressed pizza, but I did get a shot of the gluten-free next to the regular DS pie that I made at the same time (you can see how flat it is in comparison) and a shot of the underside.

The gluten-free tastes pretty good, especially if you don't have a gluten pizza at the same time to compare directly! The DS crunchy cheese edge is great as always and with a little extra oil in the pan the gluten-free gets a nice crispy bottom, too. It's best right out of the oven because as it cools the crust compacts a little and turns into something that resembles polenta, which isn't bad at all on reheats. I would happily eat it if there was no other option.

The gluten-free tastes pretty good, especially if you don't have a gluten pizza at the same time to compare directly! The DS crunchy cheese edge is great as always and with a little extra oil in the pan the gluten-free gets a nice crispy bottom, too. It's best right out of the oven because as it cools the crust compacts a little and turns into something that resembles polenta, which isn't bad at all on reheats. I would happily eat it if there was no other option.

Norma, I would love to know how they're making the cheese edge with vegan cheese (or if they're even doing so) - I have yet to find a vegan cheese that can withstand a full bake cycle on either DS or NY pies (it just breaks down into a liquid if in the oven more than a few minutes).

So the vegan DS I'm making now are baked with no cheese for about 10 minutes and then I add cheese for a couple more minutes in the oven to melt which results in a more traditional Sicilian style with an edge of expose crust rather than a crispy-cheesy edge.